A Second Look at a Christmas Card No 4: The Invisible God

Unsurprisingly I have a leaning toward cards with a text of Scripture.  As this one proudly announces - this is the message that really matters.

And the card has a splendid text too: Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! [John 14:9 TLB]   There is a disappointment to come however.  For when you turn over and look at the picture . . .

there is merely a manger with a some hay, some sheep and a something resembling some wheat in a white vase.  So the Father remains - at least in terms of this card - as mysterious and unseen as ever!

Perhaps the card company might extend its strap line to when the message really matters the picture does too.

A Second Look at a Christmas Card No. 3: Angel Bird

Starting at the top of this Christmas card it is immediately apparent that this is the standard picture of an angel accompanying the star over Bethlehem.  We don't really know about angel wings but as angels sometimes appear in the sky and move swiftly the wings are a reasonable bet.

So far so good.

But wait - is it an angel?  Is it a plane?  It's a bird!!

It's all about perspective but in this picture that is one BIG bird.  A perfectly decent image biblically - Noah's Ark, various prophets and Psalms, a symbol of the Holy Spirit at Christ's Baptism and so on.  But perhaps the artist who drew this forgot that in the birth narratives of Jesus the only doves are dead ones, offered as a sacrifice when the newborn is taken to the Temple.  That dove needs to be careful . . .

A Second Look at a Christmas Card: No 2 The Donkeys

Today a fairly dreadful report has decided that the UK should officially not be Christian.  This idea seems a sad misreflection on the fact that the UK we live in owes almost everything in its better aspects of identity to the Christian faith.  

Christmas Cards are well ahead of the game on this issue however as can be seen here:

Without question this is a Christmas picture.  There's the Middle Eastern town in the background, the night sky with the great star (albeit in the wrong place) and the stable, the hay and the donkeys.  It reminds me of one of those holiday photographs (though this is a painting) when, in trying to capture the yacht passing the pier you end up with a seagull or a passing steam train is missed and you have a piece of fencing instead.

Dame Butler-Sloss (not for the first time unfortunately) did it, the Christmas card did it, I must remember to keep centred on what it's all really about - because I too might do it and end up, in the long run, looking like an ass.

A Second Look at a Christmas Card: No 1. The Done Deal

It's that time of year when (we hope) many Christmas cards arrive.  And when I try to look at them twice - or more - because they are always more interesting than they first appear.  If only because some are so howlingly mismade!

The very first card we received (yesterday) had a very nice picture of children in the snow and at first and second glance appeared to offer nothing for an eagle-eyed blogger to blog about.  Then I looked at the back.

Maybe I'm naive, but on first reading I took it that the friend who bought this card led, by that purchase, to a small donation being given to Sue Ryder, the wonderful Hospice Charity.  But look again.  Morrisons (who have a very happy and generous relationship with SueRyder it has to be noted) have decided to give £50,000.  That's it.  If they sell a zillion cards or none at all that is the deal.  In fact, as far as I can tell, the best thing to do is to buy a card from a SueRyder Shop as that gives the Charity extra money and they'll get the £50,000 anyway!